Stop Complaining About What You Permit

Dear Mr. Whiner,

Please, stop complaining about what you permit. I don’t appreciate you stopping by my office every day, disrupting my work and meetings to complain about that which you are not willing to work on yourself. If you are interested in discussing solutions and influencing positive changethough, I am all ears.

Your Complaints

Your complaints are often about people – especially leadership – and how they “just don’t understand”. However, have you tried to help them understand or asked them why they act the way they do? Other times, you complain about our processes and how tedious, repetitive or bureaucratic they are. But, have you suggested improvements to the process owners? More important, have you followed up on these recommendations? Changing people, perceptions and processes is not easy – if it were, we’d live in Utopia.

Leaders Invest Energy in Change

Leaders do not complain about what they permit. They understand not every battle is worth fighting, but if you’re not prioritizing the effort to fight it, you should not waste energy complaining about it. Great leaders serve stakeholders by investing energy in positive change. I believe in you. So, I want us to help each other by holding one another accountable for taking action toward positive change. I”m not perfect and will slip from time-to-time as well. Please, call me on it. I am confident if we put our heads together, we can accomplish great things.

So, the next time you stop by my office, let’s change the conversation. Don’t complain about what you permit. Instead, let’s invest our energy in positive progress. Thank you for stopping by. Now, what can we improve today?

Sincerely,
Your Accountability Partner